Commentary for Numbers 19:8

V. 8. והשרף וגו׳ (Siehe V. 7).

השורף אותה יכבס את בגדיו, “the person who had burned the red heifer is to immerse his clothing in a ritual bath;” (as well as his body). According to the plain meaning of the text, the people handling the red heifer did not have to immerse their clothing in a ritual bath prior to these activities, as at that point its purpose could not have appeared to onlookers as different from presenting other animal offerings, all of which require slaughtering of the animal in question and sprinkling its blood. The Torah described the final stages of this ritual before having completed describing the task of the man burning the red heifer, seeing this part of the ritual occurred prior to the completion of all the steps he was to perform.